to get cross about 'Come Outside' advocating flushing dog poo down the toilet

[Shelly32]

Dogs carry the parasite Toxocariasis that can send people blind and cause all sorts of other flu like symptoms. Chemical sewage treatment and even bleach cannot 'kill' this parasite. By showing the woman flushing it down the toilet and then describing how all that sewage will get reused as manure for our vegetables and recycled back into drinking water makes me feel sick. We are told not to put dog and cat poo in the compost for health reasons. I do not want my vegetables grown in Fido's potentially blinding excrement. Only regular worming can destroy the Toxocariasis and not every dog owner is that responsible. I can't believe they'd encourage flushing dog poo with ours to be recycled...

I think the sewage episode is in youtube, for those who missed it.

My favourite is either Chip Pan episode (useful holes IIRC) or the bus episode, where she forgets to refuel the plane so has to take the bus. It's the madness of the fact that her two modes of transport are either plane or public bus.

'can you see your poo, Pippin?'

wtaf? like the bleeding dog is going to answer

woof to you, lady

Oh, I used to love Come Outside when DD was small. I learnt about all sorts of things that you never see or read about anywhere else - the one about the sewage being the most memorable, of course. Good old Nurse Gladys Emmanuel.

On american airlines they have great magazines on the plane full of hilarious gadgets and naff household gizmos. They always have lots of kits like this to encourage cats to use the toilet, complete with pictures of mortified looking cats.

My old dog was incontinent and pooped in the house every day. I always flushed it down the loo.

I'm a vet. Toxocara eggs have an average diameter of about 70 microns, apparently, which makes them about 10 times bigger than some other much commoner parasites found in water, such as Cryptosporidia. Things like Crytosporidia are removed from drinking water by filtering. Any filter which does a fair job of removing the smaller parasites is going to find it very easy to remove Toxocara, so if someone's worried about Toxocara in drinking water, logically you should worry more about other parasites that are smaller.
Also, any water that comes from eg a reservoir may well have been contaminated by foxes, which also carry Toxocara and which certainly haven't been wormed. The same foxes will also be leaving faeces all over the parks, as will the unwormed dogs of the irresponsible owners, of course. Direct contamination of the park is a far more likely source of infection for any child, therefore.
Compared with all this, I think the chances of a Toxocara egg getting into a child via the drinking water, rather than any other way, are so small as not to be worth worrying about, but if the OP is worried, all she needs to do is either boil the drinking water or use a home filtration system that removes things over 20 microns or so diameter, and there can be no possible risk.

While we are on worm education: the Toxocara eggs are not infective until some time after they have been passed by the dog - about a couple of weeks. Therefore, although there are many reasons why hygiene around dogs and their faeces is wise, contact with fresh faeces or a dog itself will not put a child at any risk of contracting Toxocara.

Also, Toxoplasma (the pregnant women and cat litter trays one) is something completely, totally different.

AliceInSandwichLand Thank you! I did ask my Dr about this and she knew nothing about it. We've got a filtration system so worry over. I didn't realise that the eggs were so big they could be filtered out! The internet is so packed with tbh scary info on this that it's hard not to worry sometimes! Cheers for the info

I remember watching Come Outside when I was off sick from school and I'm 34 this year!!

Alice, could you Be a love and pop over to chat and advise Gribble about what to do with the bird she has found please!

AliceinSandwichland has beaten me to it - toxocara eggs are removed from water supplies by filtration.

According to the Government, about 24% of public land eg parks is shown to contain toxocara eggs. And although partial, the figures indicate that far more adults have had contact with the parasite than have ever had the symptomatic disease.

The parasite is usually acquired via contact with contaminated soil. Hand washing is the single most effective protective step.

The waste water from hand washing is also safe to go to the sewers, whether or not you think it may be contaminated. As is the water supply generally, even though rainwater may have percolated through contaminated soil in reaching it.

Ah you beat me to it Saggy :)

Feeling slightly less hysterical now OP? Can we get back to Auntie Mabel?

Sarah I don't think i was hysterical and I don't think I came across as such. Being a little concerned is something different.. Get back to whoever you like love.

quite, Sarah

my favourite one is the 'Marmalade' one, 'Aunty Mabel' is clearly NOT in Spain, wandering through the orange groves

it's a bloke in her dress, with his back to the camera

I do, love. Try researching first before running around like a headless chicken. Did you not know that water is filtered first? Did it not occur to you that an egg is going to have ever so slightly less chance of getting through a filter than Crypto, which is pretty bloody small?

too that's my favourite too. Please don't tell me it's a bloke, I knew it was a body double, but a man as Auntie Mabel is a step too far.

Who was running around?? I do know water is filtered but didn't realise the eggs would be caught in this process. Thanks to some people who can respond in a decent manner, I now do.

tooearly that's my favourite too!
However I am now almost incapable of saying marmalade, it's always Marie malade. Like a compulsion it is.

DS' favourite is Pippins poo, always great joy when it's on (not often enough imo- geese and hedgehogs far too frequent)

One of my friends reckons you shouldn't put cat poo in the toilet, as it is too gritty and blocks the pipes!
Much as I respect her opinion, I ignore this little gem and flush my cats' poo down the toilet...

ha ha ha. YABU.

Cat poo's never blocked my loo. Perhaps it's because she's using the fullers cat litter, and not the wood pellet one.

I'll post where I like Shelly, if you can't hack people disagreeing with you, or being wrong, don't post in AIBU.

I also didn't say you couldn't post. You are odd.... I don't mind people disagreeing, it's people making inaccurate comments and assumptions that I don't care for..

Get back to whoever you like love

Bit rude and unnecessary imo. And your OP is rather hysterical and scaremongering.

Now can we get back to Auntie Mabel? It was far more interesting than yet another dog poo debate.

Every time the music starts, DS1 and 2 and I wait to see if it's the poo episode - then usually have to endure paper, pencils, or wind or somesuch.

Much excitement was generated by Auntie Mabel's appearance in the penultimate Dr Who too.

Rude is saying I'm hysterical and 'running around like a headless chicken' but I'm prepared to forgive you. Enjoy my thread Sarah

When I lived in UK I had one of those Clean Green Dog Loo things sunk into the garden, we used to put the dog poo in it and regularly flush it with water and occasionally a chemical of some sort. Didn;t bloody work. Backed up and stank. So, I phoned the council - in fact I got a right bloody bee in my bonnet and spend days if not weeks being passed from one department trying to establish the correct way to dispose of my dog waste. No one had any idea.

Not allowed to flush it down the loo.
Not allowed to put it in the bin.
Not allowed to put it in the park dog poo bins unless the poo took place in the park.
Legally, the only course of action would be to train your dog never to poo.

I like the last option SilentBob Be good if we could do the same for cats ...and come to think of it babies!! l

Not when it's true, then it becomes a fact.